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Critics say French state aid scheme will crush citizen energy projects

(EurActiv, 2 Sep 2021) The European Commission has given the green light to a new French aid scheme worth €5.7 billion aimed at supporting the production of electricity from solar rooftop installations. But because it cannot be coupled with other local and regional funding schemes, citizen solar panel projects will probably grind to a halt, campaigners have warned. EURACTIV France reports.

The long-anticipated plan, approved by the Commission on Friday (27 August), was welcomed as “a positive move” by Énergie Partagée, a citizen energy movement.

But a “discrete provision” – which does not allow for the new scheme to be coupled with other local and regional schemes – could “partly ruin this progress,” warned Alexandra Lafont-Kaufmann, advocacy officer at Énergie Partagée.

This “will primarily affect local or citizen projects, which often require financial support,” she said, adding that projects “located in the northern half of the country” in particular will be most heavily impacted. Subsidies are all the more important in areas with little sunshine as the installation costs take longer to recoup.

This concern is shared by Patrick Gèze, co-president of EnerCit’if, a solar energy cooperative operating in Paris, who warned that “the devil is in the details.”

Because the cost of electricity is the same in the southern city of Nice and the northern city of Lille – where sunshine levels are very different – the ban on coupling the new aid schemes with others would force citizens in northern France to dig deeper into their pockets, he said.

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EurActiv, 2 Sep 2021: Critics say French state aid scheme will crush citizen energy projects